Middle East | featured news

As the war in Afghanistan winds down, the impact on the nation’s employment picture goes beyond veterans returning home who are looking for work.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz al-Saud has died in Geneva, Saudi state television said on Saturday, citing a royal court statement.

United Nations observers monitoring the turmoil in Syria suspended operations on Saturday in response to escalating violence which threatens to kill off a tattered peace plan brokered by international mediator Kofi Annan.

The acknowledgment that United States military forces have taken “direct action” in those countries opens the window further into the president’s secret war on terrorists.

Yemen's army recaptured the last al Qaeda stronghold in Abyan province on Friday, officials and residents said, and victory appeared close for their offensive to drive Islamist militants from towns they seized more than a year ago.

A leading women's rights activist in Saudi Arabia writes an open letter to King Abdullah, urging him to lift a ban on women drivers.

As Russia and China remain steadfast in their refusal to back UN resolutions condemning President Bashar al-Assad, the BBC news website looks at media coverage of the Syria conflict in both countries and whether broadcasters tend to justify this stance.

As many as 50 people are feared entombed under tons of rock and stone that buried a village in a landslide after two earthquakes in northern Afghanistan, authorities said Tuesday....

Lack of progress in talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency is disappointing and it shows Tehran's continued failure to abide by its commitment to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, a U.S. envoy said on Saturday.

An increasingly effective Syrian rebel force has been gaining ground in recent weeks, stepping up its attacks on government troops and expanding the area under its control even as world attention has been focused on pressuring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to comply with a U.N. cease-fire.